to quit her job to join his defense team. The next step in his plan is to wait until the prosecution rests its case, then introduce the documentary evidence exposing the truth. Hunter instructs Merchant to destroy the video evidence, and Finley finds his desk ransacked. He tries to retrieve the back-up, but is killed during a high-speed pursuit with Merchant, and the back-up is destroyed. Nicholas reveals his plot in court using only the dated receipts for his falsified evidence, but Hunter casts doubt on his story. Nicholas has no proof that the victim's blood, found on his false evidence, was planted by Hunter; with Finley's death, he has no visual proof of his plan. The jury convicts Nicholas, and he is sentenced to death. Still believing in Nicholas, Crystal begins her own investigation, unaware Hunter knows she is dating Nicholas; she is followed by Merchant. Hunter visits Nicholas on death row to reveal that Nicholas’ phone calls to Crystal, guiding her investigation, have been recorded. Crystal obtains crime scene photos from Hunter's convictions and takes them to digital photography experts, who determine that each object containing the suspect's DNA were digitally added to the photos after the fact. When she attempts to go to the police, Merchant tries to kill her with his car, but Nickerson shoots Merchant dead, revealing that he had been "following him following" Crystal. The doctored photo evidence leads to Hunter's arrest in a public scandal. Nicholas is released, his conviction declared a mistrial, and he becomes a media celebrity, while Hunter's convictions are due to be re-examined by the state. Re-watching Nicholas' documentary, Crystal recognizes the prostitute’s hands as the hands of the victim in the murder for which Nicholas was convicted. She deduces that Nicholas hired the woman to play the prostitute in the documentary; when the woman later came to Shreveport to blackmail Nicholas, he really did kill her, using her murder to expose Hunter. Confronting Nicholas, Crystal is horrified when he desperately tries to defend himself and he implies that exposing Hunter was worth the woman’s life. Crystal, having already alerted the police, tells Nicholas the flaw in his plan: he is not subject to double jeopardy law because his case was only declared a mistrial. Disgusted, Crystal leaves as the police arrive to arrest Nicholas, but not before telling him that his actions were never about bringing down Hunter,